The Young Stepmother’s Survival Guide

She felt the sweat dripping down her lower back. The room was suddenly burning with heat. Something moved next to her and she shrieked. She almost screamed when she heard a voice. A familiar one. she had forgotten she wasn't alone.

"We are all going to die," She sobbed. From the small cut on the window above us, she saw her shivering.Her own voice sounded strange even to her ears. She didn't know why she said that, because she was also scared and finding a way out seemed almost impossible. But one of them needed to be strong for the other.

"Do you hear that?" Hanna shrieked.

"Hear what?" she asked.

"Shhh." That was when she heard the footsteps. It sounded light, but as it came nearer it became more of a thud. A sound of keys being jumbled. A door creaked.

Her heart was pounding. They moved closer and clung to each other. None of them wanted to be left alone with the scary thing coming in. It was like together they were safe.

The door finally opened wide and light flooded the room. The sun pierced directly at them. She squirmed our eyes and covered it with her hand. Two people entered the room. One was a young boy and the other was a heavily built man. That was possibly why she had heard light and heavy footsteps, she thought.

"Please don't hurt us. We can give you so much money. Just call our parents. We swear we won't turn you in. Please," Hanna cried.

"Wha make ya think we want ya money?" The man huffed.

"James, keep a lookout on them. Keep the food. We won want them dyin yet." He smirked. She felt sick.

The boy called James kept the food on the ground and turned to leave with the man.

They cried louder. "Please leave us alone! Please!"

"Shut up!" The man roared. They immediately became silent.

"Let's go son." They left and locked the door, leaving the upper part partly open. Perhaps, for James to see what they were doing.

It was then she looked around the room. It was a small room. With no furniture. Bare and empty. The walls were gray and were all cracked. The floor had also become beige due to lack of care. There was a funny smell in the room. I wonder what this room is for, she thought.

"Hmpf. Of course this is where they stuff people. To murder them anytime they want to." She didn't know that she let her thought out loud. The thought of people once being here made her stomach churn. What did they possibly do with them?

They stayed quiet for what seemed like hours. James would peek in now and then. He warned them to eat the food. But none of them even looked at it. They didn't know what they put in there. At last he gave up telling them to eat, saying it didn't even matter whether they ate or not, which frightened them the more. Sometimes, one of them would slowly get up and look through the upper part of the door. James would still be sitting there. They couldn't escape through it because it had metal bars designed across it.

"I feel weak Jameela,"

For the first time, she looked at her very well. Her usual sparkly eyes that always had eyeliner and different colours of eyeshadow because Hanna was always the one to experiment had drastically changed. Her eyes looked red and puffy from the cries. Her caremel coloured hair had become ruffled and full of dirt. She looked really weak. Jameela knew she looked like that too. Maybe even worse.